Pleased as Punch Box for a Lindt Bunny

This project was one of those "how do I wrap this" projects!! Lindt Bunnies are lovely, but not easy to wrap!!

Once I had the idea of an insert to hold the bunny, and a drop front to show it off, it actually came together very easily & I'm quite pleased with the result!

The Pleased as Punch papers, with their lovely cheery spring colours, were perfect to decorate my box, and the tag from the Time for Tags stamp set, coloured with Stampin' Blends to match the colours in the paper, mounted on card cut with the Stitched so Sweetly dies, was an obvious choice to complete the project.

Mine was for a birthday present, but you could easily just change the tag for a different occasion!

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

tams# 42526

Product List

Time For Tags Cling Stamp Set

[149423]

£12.00

Stitched So Sweetly Dies

[151690]

£30.00

Pool Party A4 Card Stock

[124391]

£8.25

Pool Party Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[144605]

£8.50

Stitched Nested Labels Dies

[149638]

£33.00

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Instructions:

NB these instructions make a box suitable for a 200g Lindt Bunny

Box:
Cardstock (I used Pool Party) 5" x 8 15/16"
               Score on long side at 2 7/8"

Cardstock 10 3/4" x 9"
              Score on long  side @ 2 7/8" from each side
                        on short side @ 2 7/8"

Cut up to the score line, wedge into the tabs & trim the tabs to make them slightly shorter. As in the template below

Adhere the tabs to the inside of the bottom of the box, noting that at this stage your box will have no front piece.

Now attach the first piece of cardstock to the inside of the base of your box, to form the drop front.


Lid:

I used DSP measuring 8 3/16" x 10 5/16"

Score all 4 sides @ 1 1/4", 2 5/8"

I like to cut on each corner in turn, rotating through 90° before working on the next corner. Cut as in the template below.

Now attach each tab to the adjacent side using wet glue or tear & tape adhesive, then fold in the side flaps and attach. 

Insert:

Cardstock measuring 7 15/16" x 5 13/16"

Score all 4 sides @ 1/2", 1 1/2"

Use the second largest stitched nested labels die to cut a hole out of the central panel. Line up the die so it is closer to one end than the other. 

Cut as in the diagram below.

Adhere each tab to the adjacent side, as you did with the lid, but this time leave the side flaps loose.

Using wet glue on the side flaps & on 3 sides of the insert, adhere the insert into the box, making sure not to glue it to the front drop flap. 

Decorate with DSP

Little Ladybug Under my Umbrella

As with most crafters, I often turn to Pinterest for inspiration for my cards, and today's card is no exception! This one was cased from one I found while searching through Pinterest, but unfortunately, I can't remember who made the original!

It uses 2 stamp sets,  Little Ladybug & Under my Umbrella, along with the Pretty Label Punch. I punched the Umbrella out of the Pleased As Punch Designer series paper, which is available until the end of March.

I coloured the little Ladybugs (or Ladybirds as we call them in the UK!) with Stampin' Blends, and then mounted the front panel on a mat of Poppy Parade cardstock. The card base is Thick Whisper White, which I also stamped with the adorable tiny ladybirds!

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

tams# 42526

Product List

Under My Umbrella Bundle (English)

[153786]

£28.75

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

[140490]

£7.75

Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock

[121694]

£8.25

Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack

[147275]

£8.50

Pretty Label Punch

[143715]

£17.00

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Thoughtful Blooms Birthday Card

Time is running out to get free products during Saleabration! Saleabration ends on March 31st, so why not treat yourself to that wish list now and get some free items at the same time!

This card uses my favourite items from this years Saleabration. The thoughtful blooms stamp set is such an easy one to use and to create beautiful cards! And the matching punch is the perfect size to make your own flower embellishments for all sorts of projects. You can get this stamp set for free if you spend £45 or with a £90 spend you could get the matching punch for free.

I stamped the foliage stamp 3 times diagonally across a piece of Whisper White card in Granny Apple Green. I then stamped the little flower stamp in Grapefruit Grove & Daffodil Delight. I stamped the large flower stamp in Melon Mambo, Mango Melody, Coastal Cabana, Gorgeous Grape & Flirty Flamingo, onto matching cardstock & punched the flowers out using the Small Bloom Punch.

The greeting from the Peaceful Moments stamp set was stamped in Bermuda Bay to match the card base. A few Rhinestones from the Holiday Rhinestones & Noble Peacock Rhinestones completed my project.

Hope you like it

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

Honey Bee Concertina Card

Last week, I showed you how to take a basic layout for a simple card & how to step it up to make it pop! I promised you a card with 'Wow' factor, so here it is! I wasn't sure what to call the fold, but I've seen it called a concertina card (I think the first one I saw was on a You Tube video by Liz Yuille of Old Stables Crafts) and I know that the granddaughter of the first person to receive one of these from me, loved opening & closing it, so I think Concertina is appropriate!

The front panel of the card is assembled in the same way as the front panel of my final card on last week's post, although, the pieces of card are slightly different sizes. I decorated the concertina part of the card with some Golden Honey DSP, layered on to Basic Black Card. And finished the card off with a greeting from the Peaceful Moments Stamp set, and a couple of flowers from the Honey Bee Stamp Set, stamped on Whisper White card & layered on Basic Black before attaching to my Crushed Curry card base.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

Concertina Card Instructions

For the Card Base use Crushed Curry Cardstock taken from the 12" x 12" Regals Pack and follow the Imperial Measurements. OR if you only have A4, then use Crushed Curry A4 & follow the metric measurements (my apologies for the metric measurements not being nice round numbers!)

Cut your card base to  6" x 12" (14.85 x 29.7 cm)

On the short side, cut from 2" to 10", at 2" & 4".
For the metric version, the easiest way is to draw horizontal pencil lines at 4.95cm from each end. Then use these pencil lines as your guide for cutting from one pencil line to the other at 4.95 & 9.9.

Turn to the long side & score at 4" & 8" (9.9 & 19.8 cm)
  and, to the first cut line only at 2" & 10" (4.95 & 24.75cm) turn through 180° and repeat

You then need to fold & burnish your score lines. Starting each row with a mountain fold, fold by a valley fold. then mountain & finally valley (NB middle row only has 1 mountain & 1 valley)

To decorate the front section (left hand end of diagram) use a panel of DSP 1 5/8" wide x 5 5/8" tall (4 x 14cm) matted onto a basic black layer 1 3/4" x 5 3/4" (4.3 x 14.3cm). Adhere this to Section 1

Use the same measurements to cut a whisper white panel & black mat for the greeting (right hand end of diagram). Stamp the greeting centrally, and the flower in the top left & bottom right of the whisper white piece. Attach to the black mat and adhere in section 2

Cut 5 pieces of DSP measuring 1 5/8" x 1 5/8" (4 x 4cm) and mat these onto black card measuring 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" (4.3 x 4.3cm). Adhere to sections 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7

Cut 3 pieces of DSP measuring 1 5/8" tall  x 3 5/8" wide (4 x 9cm) and mat these onto Black card measuring 1 3/4" x 3 3/4" (4.3 X 9.3cm) Adhere these to sections 8, 9 & 10

For the Front panel, you will need a whisper white piece, measuring 3 1/8" x 4 5/8" (8 x 12 cm),
                                                                      a black layer  measuring 3 1/4" x 4 3/4" (8.3 x 12.3cm),  
                                                               and a Crushed Curry layer.    3 1/2" x 5".      (9 x 13cm)

Assemble the front panel in the same way as the front of last weeks card, and attach it to section 12 (NB it will overlap Section 1, and should line up horizontally on the right of the card, and central vertically)

Sailing Home Frame

This is the third frame I made for our caravan which is near Caernarfon in North Wales. I used the proximity of the sea and boats on the Menai Straits as my main inspiration, as well as the Heron we often see on the river which runs through the caravan park.

The images are all from the Sailing Home and Lilypad Lake stamp sets. I've mounted each of them on a piece of Seaside Spray Cardstock, which I'd run through the High Seas Embossing Folder, and backed with a piece of Night of Navy Cardstock.

For the centre piece, I used the same image as I used on my Sailing Home card, I showed you in November (follow the link to see how I made it)

The background paper is from the Come Sail Away DSP.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

Instructions:

You will need 2 pieces of A4 Cardstock, cut them in half lengthways, to give you 4 pieces measuring 29.7cm x 10.5cm.

Score each of them, on the short side, at 3cm, 6cm & 7.5cm

Now turn it so that the narrow section is towards the bottom and score at 28cm.
 Also score at 3cm to 1st score line only.

Cut away the pieces marked on the template below, noting that you will cut from the end of the 2nd score line to the base of the short score line, at the left hand end. On the right hand end, you will remove all except for a small tab.

Fold & burnish all your score lines. You will be folding each piece into a triangular tube and attaching the section shown at the top of the template to the section shown at the bottom.

Apply tear & tape adhesive to the back of the bottom section. It's easiest if you use 2 pieces, 1 on the part that will attach to the top section, and the other to the part which won't be covered by the top section.

Now fold up each piece into a triangular tube and attach the top section to the larger piece of tear tape.

Using tear tape adhesive or wet glue on the tab, attach one section of your frame to the next one (tab end, connecting to non-tab end) by attaching the tab to the inside the tube. You should have a square end going inside a mitred end.

At the same time, remove the cover from the remaining tear tape which you previously attached to the bottom section and attach this to the back of the other section, making sure your joint is square.

Repeat, adding in the other sections, until you have a square frame.

Cut a piece of card (the backing card from our DSP or foil sheets is perfect for this) at about 27cm x 27cm.

Cut a piece of DSP to use as your background, you'll need it to be smaller than your backing card, but larger than the aperture of the frame. Approximately, 24cm x 24cm. Attach this centrally on your backing card.

Using Wet Glue or Tear Tape, attach the frame onto your backing card, ensuring that you keep it square as you do it.

Now attach your image(s) that you want to frame.

tams# 39500

Product List

Sailing Home Bundle

[151066]

£46.75

Come Sail Away Designer Series Paper

[149481]

£10.75

Lilypad Lake Cling-Mount Stamp Set

[151272]

£20.00

Lakeside Dies

[146351]

£25.00

High Seas 3D Embossing Folder

[149577]

£9.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Simple Stamping Honey Bee Cards

As Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, we love to teach others about stamping & card making, and to show how easy it is, with just a few basic supplies, to make a lovely card.

But most of us crafters, don't like to stop there! Once you're bitten by the bug, you want to learn how to make more spectacular cards, so today's cards are an example of how to make a very simple card, and how to easily step it up and make it a bit more special.

My first card is about as simple as it gets! I used the Honey Bee Stamp set, and stamped the Hive image in Crushed Curry & the other images in Memento Black ink. I used half a sheet of Thick Whisper White card, folded in half to make my card base. But, if you are a beginner card maker, I'd suggest getting a pack of our Notecards, as they come with envelopes, so helps to keep the initial cost down. The only other thing you'd need would be a block to mount your stamps on. I also used a yellow pencil (raid the kids colouring pencils or treat yourself to a set of our watercolour pencils) to colour the stripes on the bees.

If you ordered those 5 items (stamp set, Crushed Curry & Memento black ink pads,  clear block & notecards) it would come to just £46. Until the end of March this would also entitle you to a free item form our Saleabration promotion. You could choose the beautiful Golden Honey paper (while stocks last) which coordinates beautifully with the Honey Bee stamp set.

For this card, I stepped up the same layout, by stamping the same images, using the same inks on to a piece of Whisper White cardstock which measures 3 3/8" x 5" (8.5cm x 12.5cm). This time, I coloured the stripes on the bees using a Dark Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Pen. I adhered my stamped piece to a piece of Basic Black Card measuring 3 1/2" x 5 1/8" (9 x 13cm) and attached that to the front of a card base made from half a sheet of Crushed Curry card. Still simple, but requires a few more supplies, which really make the images 'pop'!

For the final card (for now!) I've used exactly the same layout as the middle card, but this time I've also used die cuts cut using the Detailed Bee Dies.You can save 10% by buying the stamps and dies as a bundle (until June 3rd)

Instead of stamping the hive, I die cut an aperture, in both the whisper white layer & the basic black layer, using the Hive die. I cut the honey comb from basic black card, and adhered this between the 2 layers, so that it showed in the aperture. I stamped, coloured & cut the flowers & the bees, and attached the flowers using wet glue, & the bees using stampin' dimensionals.

Come back next week & I'll show you how I used some of the Golden Honey paper, to step up the same basic layout for a real 'Wow' card!

Hope you like my cards!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane x

Basket of Daisies

It's getting to that time of year when we're all fed up of winter weather and long for some spring sunshine. So I thought a basket of pretty flowers might cheer us all up!

Today's project is based on one I saw some time ago by another demonstrator. I've redesigned the basket so that it would fit a 9cm sphere of floral foam which I had in. I'm really pleased with the result!

The flowers were punched out of Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo, Gorgeous Grape, Mango Melody & Melon Mambo Cardstock, using the Daisy Punch & the Medium Daisy Punch. You'll need about 6 large daisies & 12 medium ones in each colour.

Work the petals of each daisy by running your bone folder along it to start it curling. Then glue 2 of the same size & colour together, with a dab of Tombow, so that the petals are off set. When the glue is dry, using a floral pin and your paper piercing mat, push the pin through the centre of your daisy. Now run it through your hand to curl the petals up more. At this point you can also remove the pin, and rub the daisy, gently, between the palms of your hands to curl it even more.

For the small daisies, I then simply put the pin back through the central hole. For the larger daisies, put the pin through a small daisy and then through a large one, as in the close up above, to give a fuller flower. Then, simply arrange the flowers in the floral foam in your basket.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by

Jane

Basket Instructions

Cut your cardstock (I used Gray Granite) to 7 1/8" x 7 1/8" (18cm x 18cm)

If you are using a trimmer, use the ruler on the track, to accurately score to 2 1/2" (6.5cm) only, at 3 1/8" & 4" (8 & 10 cm). It is important that this measurement is accurate.

If you are using a scoreboard, mark each of the 4 sides at 2 1/2" & 4 5/8" (6.5 & 11.5 cm)
Use these marks to line up a ruler on your card at 2 1/2" (6.5cm) from the top, and score from the top to your ruler at 3 1/8" & 4" (8 & 10 cm).
Tip: Use a pencil to make your marks on the card, then, when you've finished this part, erase your pencil marks. This will stop you getting these marks confused with the marks you'll be making later! (Ask me how I know!! )

Your card should now look like this diagram

Now connect the ends of all all the score lines, using your scoring stylus, to score an octagon in the centre of your card, as in the diagram below.

Turn your paper through 45° so that the corner points upwards, and place your ruler horizontally (corner to corner) across the middle. Now move it up to line it up on the 2 score line junctions just above the ruler. Score on both sides of the octagon from the octagon to the edge of your card. Turn through 90° and repeat. Keep repeating until your card looks like this.

Mark all 4 sides at 1 3/4" & 5 3/8" (4.5 & 13.5cm)

Cut up all 8 score lines that are vertical or horizontal in the diagram, just to the central octagon.

Line your card up on your trimmer, so that the 2 marks adjacent to one corner are on your cutting line, and remove the corner. Repeat for all 4 corners.

Your card should now look like this (dashed lines are scored, solid lines are cut)

Fold & burnish all remaining score lines.

Now bring up 2 of the corner flaps and overlap them, leaving the central flap inside the basket. You may find it helpful to place your floral foam sphere, temporarily, inside the basket at this point, to check how much overlap you need. Adhere the 2 corner sections together, leaving the central flap loose.

Repeat for the opposite side, ensuring that the overlap is the same on both sides.

Use the Braided Border Punch on a piece of card of A4 length (or 11" long if you are using American sizes) to make the handle.

If you would like the handle to be fixed, Assemble the 2 remaining corners in the same way as the ones you've already done, but adhere the end of the handle between the flap and the 2 corner pieces i.e. adhere all 4 layers in the order (going from outside of the basket to inside) corner flap, corner flap, handle, inside flap.

Alternatively punch holes in each of the 3 sections (2 corner flaps & inside flap), being careful to ensure they all line up, and use a brad to connect the 4 pieces in the same order as above. This method enables you to move the handle, which makes inserting flowers around the handle area much easier.

Now put your floral foam sphere inside the basket, and use floral tape to attach it to the 2 loose flaps.

Decorate with your flowers.